San Francisco, 11:44 AM
Wed Dec 16
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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@Roklimber: I live in the Bay Area. I think we've become jaded, because even more noticeable Earthquakes barely garner a reaction. Some friends and I were eating out one night and there was a noticeable tremor. Didn't even stop people from eating. Some people held onto their glasses to keep them from tipping over.
@Bill-Lee: I know what you mean. I lived in Orange County (Southern CA) for over 10 years. My first 4.2 woke me up real good. Another 4.5 happened when I was playing chess online and my opponent (who was in some other part of the state) also felt it. My desk and computer monitor shook quite a bit, but not enough to get me out of my house. A couple more 4.x and I stopped caring altogether.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: It's entirely posssible that there was $9M or more in damages. Don't forget that the buildings there are old, for the most part. Picture construction consisting of building blocks (granted, big effin stone ones), with no structural components other than arches and gravity. When they move, they stay moved. It's like the devestation one hears about when there are quakes in Turkey - the damage and loss of life is exacerbated by the type of construction (basically, mud bricks)CA didn't start taking seismics seriously until the 20th Century.I remember when the LA City Hall was the tallest bldg downtown, and the hue and cry when Arco built the twin towers (which are now lost in the skyline, and go by another name) about how they'd act in an earthquake. Worse yet is the mud volcano in (Phillipines?, Sumatra?) that was started by drilling and continues to flow (as the Spice must).
There was a story the marine biologists used to tell at my university about how the the octopus tank always had rat bones in it when they cleaned it out.
They decided to set up a camera to film what happened when the octopus was left alone, and it turned out that the octopus was catching roaches and using the roaches as bait to catch rats.
I have nothing but the greatest respect for octopi.
@NerD: Blattella: that kind of cephalopodic action inspires respect?? That better be the "I fear this thing and it's capabilities and wouldn't even dream of pissing it off" kind of respect.
I'd heard of another tale where the octopus liked companionship and getting attention, and for some reason the electricity in the tank room kept shorting out. Turns out the animal was squirting water out of the tank and into the sockets at night so people would come into the tank room. That's a level of manipulation that I don't want to see anywhere in the chepalopod family!
As long as the beat the smirks off the faces of Dolphins when they reach human level intelligence first, I'm fine with our future 8 limbed brain brothers.
Stinking, smiling dolphins. They think they're so cute...
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
Recent quakes in California and Nevada (updated every hour or within 5 minutes of a large quake)
[quake.wr.usgs.gov]
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
The last one I remember was 3 months ago, it was a good shove, and that was it.
Disappointing really.
12/15/09
12/15/09
01:13 AM
05:47 AM
12/15/09
12/15/09
That said, he should have invested in more Kyptonite.
12/15/09
12/14/09
Octopodes seem to be much smarter than they need to be to survive. How did they get that way? Should we welcome them into the Federation?
12/14/09
12/14/09
[io9.com]
12/14/09
They decided to set up a camera to film what happened when the octopus was left alone, and it turned out that the octopus was catching roaches and using the roaches as bait to catch rats.
I have nothing but the greatest respect for octopi.
12/15/09
I'd heard of another tale where the octopus liked companionship and getting attention, and for some reason the electricity in the tank room kept shorting out. Turns out the animal was squirting water out of the tank and into the sockets at night so people would come into the tank room. That's a level of manipulation that I don't want to see anywhere in the chepalopod family!
12/15/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
Stinking, smiling dolphins. They think they're so cute...
12/14/09
12/14/09
"Are you out of your coco nut?"